Now I want to ask how much should a unpaid member get for access to the site? Consider that everything needs to remain readable to Google so Guest and Unpaid members need limits. Consider all these...

• Forum
• Articles
• Garage
• Downloads
• Raffles

1 hour ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Ok, added to the subscriptions an Quarterly Subscription. $30 for 3 months. Gotta get back to moving account into monthly or yearly plans.

 

 

Test Drive group is GONE. No longer. When you register now it should go directly to the Unpaid members. All the test drive member where moved to Unpaid Member as well. 

I'm thinking if we are going to disallow non-paying users from posting we should send out a warning email first to all the freeloading users so they know why we are doing that and perhaps solicit their financial support before we pull the rug out from under them.  That is only if it's going to be a pay to post site.  

Are these new payment plans going into affect in November? Just asking because I just renewed my $5.99 membership at the beginning of this month. No big deal either way. Just making sure I don’t get locked out. 

3 minutes ago, Threadzy said:

Are these new payment plans going into affect in November? Just asking because I just renewed my $5.99 membership at the beginning of this month. No big deal either way. Just making sure I don’t get locked out. 

Good question!  We are likely going to send out a bulk email notice about the changes that need to take place and why.

And what guarantee do we have that the site won't get shut down "quietly" like said ? I don't think anyone wants to fork out $100 in November to find out it wasn't enough and it's suddenly shut down in December. My year renews in March. Others just joined this month. Just wondering what the plan is.

2 hours ago, Threadzy said:

Are these new payment plans going into affect in November? Just asking because I just renewed my $5.99 membership at the beginning of this month.

 

Your locked in. Don't worr!. I've went to check and being the contract with paypal is active I have zero method of moving you till your subscription expires. Then when renewal time comes you can renew at the new prices. 

 

Test Drive is gone. All members of this group moved to "Unpaid Member"

 

Customer is gone. All members of this group moved to "Unpaid Member"

 

Silver, Gold, and Platinum are no longer allowed for purchase. 

1 hour ago, dave110 said:

I don't think anyone wants to fork out $100 in November to find out it wasn't enough and it's suddenly shut down in December.

Its not going to get shutdown at this time. With @leety helping out and we are both working at trying to change everything around. The other big step I must do is upgrade servers yet. I'm trying to raise extra funds so we can continue to pay bills. The new server is going to cost $1,388.00 for the year. She been a huge help diving in and helping with page generation. 

36 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

 

Your locked in. Don't worr!. I've went to check and being the contract with paypal is active I have zero method of moving you till your subscription expires. Then when renewal time comes you can renew at the new prices. 

 

Test Drive is gone. All members of this group moved to "Unpaid Member"

 

Customer is gone. All members of this group moved to "Unpaid Member"

 

Silver, Gold, and Platinum are no longer allowed for purchase. 

Its not going to get shutdown at this time. With @leety helping out and we are both working at trying to change everything around. The other big step I must do is upgrade servers yet. I'm trying to raise extra funds so we can continue to pay bills. The new server is going to cost $1,388.00 for the year. She been a huge help diving in and helping with page generation. 

This sight is not going down without a fight!

 

I'm a red headed Italian step-child, most of us die at birth ;-)  We are built for worthy battles.  

 

I'm all in to do my part to keep this valuable resource going!

One more question. I noticed the tip jar won't work unless you're logged in. I often see links to our articles over on CF. If somebody finds something that really helps them out they might feel compelled to drop in a few bucks, but not sign up for $100. Shouldn't the tip jar be open to all viewers?

11 minutes ago, dave110 said:

One more question. I noticed the tip jar won't work unless you're logged in. I often see links to our articles over on CF. If somebody finds something that really helps them out they might feel compelled to drop in a few bucks, but not sign up for $100. Shouldn't the tip jar be open to all viewers?

@Mopar1973ManI was trying to find this in the back-end to see if I could make this accessible but that one's in your wheelhouse at this point.  Not sure if it's possible if it is @dave110is spot on!

Problem. 

 

That is great to do. But... now from credit or debit cards you need to have a valid address on file to make a valid transaction. If your not registered then there is no way to verify that card is not fraudulent. 

2 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Problem. 

 

That is great to do. But... now from credit or debit cards you need to have a valid address on file to make a valid transaction. If your not registered then there is no way to verify that card is not fraudulent. 

Could we do something directly through pay pal and bypass our back end?

 

The banner that Nick had up at the top a while back. IIRC anyone could click that and it directed you to pay-pal. The suggested donation was $1 which is nothing but if it needs to be a set price you could have a choice of say 4 donations in $5 increments starting at $5. Pay Pal would take care of the validation part I would think. Just a thought.

Just now, dave110 said:

The banner that Nick had up at the top a while back. IIRC anyone could click that and it directed you to pay-pal. The suggested donation was $1 which is nothing but if it needs to be a set price you could have a choice of say 4 donations in $5 increments starting at $5. Pay Pal would take care of the validation part I would think. Just a thought.

 

Leety beat me to it 

Edited October 8, 20204 yr by dave110

yep you can create a direct to paypal donate button like I had before on all guests to the articles section.  

 

Logging in is a killer for guests donating we need to have a 1 touch opition because we cannot expect people to sign up to the site to donate.  The majority of our traffic are not members.  It really is an issue of numbers, leverage what we have and that is guest traffic.

 

 

Edited October 8, 20204 yr by Me78569

Just remember there is no accounting of these transactions. I will never be notified of donations. There is no way to reverse the donation for the member. 

 

Just remember now I've got to the bookeeping in two places. Login to Paypal to find all the random donation and back on the website being now the donations will all be disconnected from the site. This will take even long to hunt down. I've trying to gear up to do Quickbook and do it from one spot on the website not scattered all over between paypal and website. 

 

 

Aleast here I get the option to refund, credit the account easily because the username is attached to the donation. When its just  paypal it a real name and have no idea who the user is. No notifications of the donation occured it just happens. So if there is any problem it makes it tougher being you trying to match a real name ot user name that is disconnected. Why I was trying to switch away from that...

 

This is why I also now process all my shop invoice in the website. This is done to simplify the bookeeping. So all the mechanic work I do for customers I can produce a invoice and now email to them and they can pay by credit or debit card. All invoices are bound to names and all fiances the member can still control. 

 

You might make it easy for the people but double my work doing the paypal link...

 

Again the member/customer can handle all monies, invoices, etc form the site. 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 20204 yr by Mopar1973Man

I dont think there is ever a reason to refund a donation from a guest.  

 

Point is we are not going to convince the majority of the traffic the site has to create a sign in,  last I looked %90 of our traffic is direct access from google then ~%85 of the traffic does not continue to a 2nd page. 

 

 

 

 

Hell if we need to create a 2nd paypal account strictly for guest donations.  Keep them seperate and use that to help pay the server bills.   We just can't leave %85 of our traffic without a notice to donate.  

Edited October 8, 20204 yr by Me78569

Some people have no idea. (Shaking my head)

 

 Last April with all the COVID mess and trying to get the website taxes done. Being the book keeping is rather very basic it cost ME PERSONAL $7,000 just in FEDERAL TAXES. I not going down that road again. If a member had to register to donate great at least the books are kept up to date and not a scattered mess. Hence why all my shop invoice are now process through the site. I got tired of 3 separate books (Personal jobs, Website job, and household) Why? foolish... Put it all together since the shop is work with Doing Business As "Mopar1973Man.Com" so I shouldn't have separate books for wrench work and website work bind them together under the same roof.  

 

Now if a member is got to register it better than me paying thousand in taxes. 

 

Again I'm trying to prep up for Quickbooks. There is now a online version that is not OS based. This means even myself with a Linux PC can do books now. So if all the transacts happen on the site I can just go to the back room and hit the invoice and plug the data in. Now scattered back and forth between paypal and M73M.com invoices. Again I'm looking at reducing my work load in this I already work an 8 hour job and come home to put in another 4 hours minimum into this DAILY. I'f I'm home early then I work here sooner and longer. Again about simplifying jobs and not making thing harder. 

 

So for this to happen the transaction have to occur on the website then anyone can plug in from one spot. Hence since the website provides the management for the member this is the best option.

Edited October 8, 20204 yr by Mopar1973Man

23 hours ago, dave110 said:

And what guarantee do we have that the site won't get shut down "quietly" like said ? I don't think anyone wants to fork out $100 in November to find out it wasn't enough and it's suddenly shut down in December. My year renews in March. Others just joined this month. Just wondering what the plan is.

You are good until your current membership expires you should see an orange banner across the top of the page when you log in with an orange message saying "Critical changes to your account" on it.  Let me know if that copy is clear or if you have any suggestions on how I can modify it.  Thanks for your input!!!!

Ok... I gotta give props to @leety... Since her little bit she done has made a lot of things happen. I would like to note traffic is still very stable we are still handling 1,900 to 2,200 people per DAY. A matter of fact we are above last month by 4.8% in traffic. The other thing that my eyes could not believe. I was watch Google Adsense and this has be the record breaker for income from advertising. This is the most I've ever seen. 

 

 

Now I would like to thank the rest that have been posting review and being honest about there reviews. This is very helpful to the Google search engine and for other members. When people see good reviews they would like to have the products, web info etc. Poor review of course you would need to review your article and listen to the members review and fix what is not good. I've been hopping in approving reviews left and right last night. Thank you goes out to all the members writing reviews for the website.

 

I did get Quickbooks set up... I got all of the last year worth of (Oct. 19 to Oct 20). Sad to say there is -$6,308 short fall. Yup. The income was not keeping up at all. I'm still sorting through to make sure personal is personal and business is business. I've got more to do to the books so this number will most likely change again. Being Quickbooks is online it is not OS based. This means once I get it all fired up then I can add BoD staff members to be able to view and see what going on. The other part when the prices set for the 1.99, 2.99 and 5.99 most that went back to Paypal and not the site. Being that after you figure 2.5% and then 30 cent per transaction leave less income and took more subscriptions to make up the loss. Now with the 10, 30 and 100 we should look better once everyone rolls over to the new subscription. I've peak at a few user account and double checked and made sure you capable of renewal on the new system. 

 

As for the books and donations still is absolutely best to have them register and make the donation. When you look at the website the real name and user names are bound. Then you can see the transaction in the books by the real name. Problem is when you allow anon. donations. Now there name is not bound to anything thing. I've had donor call me wonder why it didn't work or why was I charged twice. This becomes a challenge because I have nothing  site wise bound to that donation. Like one a guy used his wife card to pay the bill and I was hunting for hours to figure it out. Again nothing bound to the user name to find this transaction. After he pull out his card and found it was his wife's card then it came together. This isn't my first of something like this, this is why I prefer to have registered members now real name bind to user name and all transaction are traceable and easily fixed. 

 

Part of this short fall is from investing into making High Idle Kits which just a 100 cables cost just about $4,700. We have not sold many high idle kits and I've got a huge box of cables left. Then I've got ready kits of high idle ready to go.

Edited October 9, 20204 yr by Mopar1973Man

23 minutes ago, Mopar1973Man said:

Ok... I gotta give props to @leety... Since her little bit she done has made a lot of things happen. I would like to note traffic is still very stable we are still handling 1,900 to 2,200 people per DAY. A matter of fact we are above last month by 4.8% in traffic. The other thing that my eyes could not believe. I was watch Google Adsense and this has be the record breaker for income from advertising. This is the most I've ever seen. 

 

 

Now I would like to thank the rest that have been posting review and being honest about there reviews. This is very helpful to the Google search engine and for other members. When people see good reviews they would like to have the products, web info etc. Poor review of course you would need to review your article and listen to the members review and fix what is not good. I've been hopping in approving reviews left and right last night. Thank you goes out to all the members writing reviews for the website.

 

I did get Quickbooks set up... I got all of the last year worth of (Oct. 19 to Oct 20). Sad to say there is -$6,308 short fall. Yup. The income was not keeping up at all. I'm still sorting through to make sure personal is personal and business is business. I've got more to do to the books so this number will most likely change again. Being Quickbooks is online it is not OS based. This means once I get it all fired up then I can add BoD staff members to be able to view and see what going on. The other part when the prices set for the 1.99, 2.99 and 5.99 most that went back to Paypal and not the site. Being that after you figure 2.5% and then 30 cent per transaction leave less income and took more subscriptions to make up the loss. Now with the 10, 30 and 100 we should look better once everyone rolls over to the new subscription. I've peak at a few user account and double checked and made sure you capable of renewal on the new system.

 

As for the books and donations still is absolutely best to have them register and make the donation. When you look at the website the real name and user names are bound. Then you can see the transaction in the books by the real name. Problem is when you allow anon. donations. Now there name is not bound to anything thing. I've had donor call me wonder why it didn't work or why was I charged twice. This becomes a challenge because I have nothing  site wise bound to that donation. Like one a guy used his wife card to pay the bill and I was hunting for hours to figure it out. Again nothing bound to the user name to find this transaction. After he pull out his card and found it was his wife's card then it came together. This isn't my first of something like this, this is why I prefer to have registered members now real name bind to user name and all transaction are traceable and easily fixed. 

 

Part of this short fall is from investing into making High Idle Kits which just a 100 cables cost just about $4,700. We have not sold many high idle kits and I've got a huge box of cables left. Then I've got ready kits of high idle ready to go.

Thank you for all this info.  Very helpful.

 

I’m home all day today so I can work on the subscription page.  I just need the correct info for the data info etc.

 

Once we get the subscription page all sorted, we could do a raffle campaign with those parts and I could go into the cummins forum and traffic members to the site and hopefully get some of them to join and or man up and drop a tip in the jar.

 

To take anonymous donations out of the PayPal mess, What about offering an anonymous donation through gofund me or facebook or youtube?  These are places people already have accounts.  

 

Make it a no refund policy so we don’t have to worry about that, and it doesn’t matter who they are, their $ spends the same.  So we don’t need to worry about connecting those funds to users.

 

A review articles campaign email to all of our subscribers is another way to traffic existing users to the site as well.  

 

If we ask people to review articles that’s free for them.

 

Can unpaid users review articles?

 

Before we do any campaigns the subscription page needs to be sorted.

 

23 hours ago, leety said:

You are good until your current membership expires you should see an orange banner across the top of the page when you log in with an orange message saying "Critical changes to your account" on it.  Let me know if that copy is clear or if you have any suggestions on how I can modify it.  Thanks for your input!!!!

I noticed that after posting. Thanks for the communication. We need more of that so we know what's going on. There's too much info hidden in threads like this and if you are not following or on every day it's easy to lose track of what's going on.

1 minute ago, dave110 said:

I noticed that after posting. Thanks for the communication. We need more of that so we know what's going on. There's too much info hidden in threads like this and if you are not following or on every day it's easy to lose track of what's going on.

Yes I agree.  If you get a chance would you mind reviewing any of the articles you have found helpful.  It’s bumps our search engine ratings and that actually helps alot.